


Getting Sorted

by FireOpal (Sandel), Sandel



Series: The 'Well Enough' 'Verse [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, Gen, Harry Potter Next Generation, One Shot, Remix, Slytherin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6978967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandel/pseuds/FireOpal, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandel/pseuds/Sandel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div class="center">
  <p>The Sorting Hat does take Albus' choice into account, but is it really the right choice?</p>
  <p>---</p>
  <p>(Re)written for Theia's <span class="u">Minor Character One Shot Challenge</span> at the Harry Potter Fanfiction Forums.</p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	Getting Sorted

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [In the Slytherin Common Room](https://archiveofourown.org/works/803582) by [Sandel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandel/pseuds/Sandel). 



>   
>   
>  Banner by galaxies at The Dark Arts forum.

_“Ah, interesting... There’s bravery here, yes, but of a quiet kind. You won’t hesitate to do something scary if that’s where your enquiries take you... but you do not long for fame and recognition. In fact it seems you’ve had quite enough of that already.”_

_“Heh... yeah, I guess.”_

_“There’s loyalty too, dear me, and a willingness to work hard... but not necessarily within the rules, I see. Hm. A ready mind if I ever saw one, and lots of curiosity about the arcane and the peculiar... it seems I have a future Unspeakable in my velvet folds.”_

_“I_ would _love to work in the Department of Mysteries...”_

_“A noble life’s ambition. And speaking of ambition... Hm, what’s that?”_

_“Er... nothing...”_

_“Ah ha! I can hear your ‘not Slytherin’ even though you try to suppress it, you know.”_

_“S-sorry.”_

_“That’s nothing to be sorry about. Plenty of people come in with preferences. Your own father told me quite the same thing, in fact...”_

_“Yes, I know. He told me. But... well, isn’t the whole point of you that we shouldn’t choose our Houses ourselves?”_

_“The point of me is to put you in the House that’s your best fit, and no one will ever fit well in a House they hate.”_

_“I don’t h-hate Slytherin.”_

_“No? Then let me see. As I said, there’s ambition to spare, resourcefulness and a cleverness that could as easily be called ‘cunning’ as ‘wit’..."_

_“No, but! I... er... Well, Uncle Dennis is an Unspeakable and he was a Gryffindor! Not that I think I, like, have to be in Gryffindor or anything. Just... just put me where you think I’ll fit best.”_

_“Dennis Creevey? How delightful! And surprising; Gryffindor ambition is usually for fame and recognition. An Unspeakable is a keeper of secrets and a seeker of hidden knowledge, and that’s what allures you, isn’t it? Ravenclaw is an option, but your desire for siblinghood and cohesion actually makes me want to go with... SLYTHERIN!”_

* * *

Albus Potter had always dreamt about having his own four poster bed at Hogwarts. But in his dreams the hangings had been red velvet, or blue satin. Now, a little more than week into his first term at Hogwarts, he sat on a bed hung with green silk, absentmindedly ripping out silver threads from the green brocade bedspread.

Al looked out the window at a school of minnows swimming by and sighed. He knew that he should take the graphorn by the graphorns and just go up to the common room, try to make some friends. But he had no wish to endure the silence and weird looks he got every time he took a seat in a green leather armchair in the Slytherin Dungeon. Every day he told himself that his Housemate’s breathless fascination with him had to die down any day now, but this far there had been no signs of that happening. He spent most of his time in the library with Rose or someone else he knew, but in the evenings he had to go back down to the dungeons.

A knock on the dormitory door made him jump. Only a boy from another year would knock instead of just entering, and as Al more or less had claimed the dormitory for himself (at least during the daytime), the visitor was most likely looking for _him_. Al had his suspicions about the identity his mystery guest.

“Come in,” he said with a sigh.

The door opened to reveal the red hair and beatific smile of Louis Weasley, the only one of Al’s cousins who was also a Slytherin.

“Good evening, Albus,” Louis said. “I’m here to ask if you want to play a game of chess with me.”

“Er... _why_?” asked Al, surprised. He had never quite gotten the hang of chess, mostly because Rose always beat him in the first few minutes of a game. “Oh, and hi, Louis,” he added. His cousin abhorred impoliteness.

“Well, for starters it’s a better way to spend an evening than giving the house-elves extra work” Louise replied, nodding towards the formerly embroidered bedspread.

“Oops.” Al blushed when he saw the mess he’d made.

“No, but seriously, Al,” Louis went on, “nothing brings this House together more than chess. They’ll only care about the game, not that _you’re_ playing it.”

Al looked at him doubtfully.

“And you won’t have to talk to anyone.”

That sealed the deal.

“Okay, then,” Al said with another sigh. “Er, let me just write an apology note to the house-elves first.”

* * *

Louis was right. Just a few moves into their game half of Slytherin House seemed to sit spellbound around their table, but their eyes were locked on the chessboard, not Al. When it became clear that Louis had the upper hand some of them even started to whisper advice to Al. He still lost, but it was much less humiliating than it would have been without their help. Maybe Slytherin wasn’t so bad, after all.

The rest of the evening Al sat reading, almost relaxed, in an armchair in a dark corner of the common room.


End file.
